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Don't you mean Siena?
I don't find QOS nostalgic either. The opposite. Fresh and forward looking.
I say that because to me it felt like a lot of early Connery adventures.
And that little guitar solo by Arnold as Camille and Bond are walking through the Bolivian desert. Great moments like that can't be found in SF or SP.
Bond didn't kidnap M. The audience knows it, we know it, and the Scooby gang knows it. But, the Whitehall officials don't know it. M wasn't escorted to a safe house the prime minister would've known. And with Mallory as the chairman of the intelligence and security committee, lying to the PM about it would've cost him his job. He wasn't authorized and acted off the books, which would be seen as corruption (which, at heart, isn't, but we only we know it. Whitehall doesn't). I'm not saying let's put 20 minutes of discussion preparing this scene, but a simple line or two with Mallory receiving an operation granted permission from the PM (who's only mentioned, not seen) would've sufficed it. Just like how Captain Benson (George Baker) in The Spy Who Loved Me would receive word from the person on the other side of the call that their submarine was gone missing. The whole film's indication to the scheme is that it was acted off the heads of a few intelligence people who don't have a say in the authorization of such a carry-out. They'd be tried for this. And of course, after what happened at the Skyfall Lodge with M's death circulating it, you can't fabricate a story like that to your liking. It would've taken months to clear this out, and if the judges or the ministry itself pushing the public inquiry were understanding of the matter. Knowing Clair Dowar (Helen McCrory), she'd condemn the MI6 furthermore. We saw how she was determined to take M down with treasonous allegations, didn't we?
Again, I'm not saying we should put a whole scene of Bond being exonerated as it indeed doesn't fit the film's pacing (especially after the death of M scene). But, Moneypenny or M back at the new headquarters could've mentioned that they're all cleared out, etc in a line or two, letting the public know of what happened. It wouldn't have taken a second.
Mendes is a good, if overrated, director. American Beauty to me is more a triumph of script and score (sad to say as I hated SP's effort). Bening, who is great in other things, is so over-the-top in AB, and dare I say, poorly directed.
Mendes' fatal flaw with Bond was that he totally misunderstood what worked in CR--a stripped-down Bond who relied on his wits, few gadgets, and no Moneypenny and Q.
Eon, quite shrewdly, wiped out 20 films worth of baggage (because any long-running series has baggage) with a single film. Mendes brought it all back, unnecessarily so, and threw in endless LALD homages, to boot.
Ahh... Sorry. In that case I entirely agree with you. For me too QOS has a lightness of touch and doesn't outstay its welcome. In that way I also feel it is more reminiscent of the early Bond films than anything else we've had for a very long time. But I don't find it nostalgic in a conscious way. I think we agree though.
I guess I'd say that in spirit it is more a simple, fast paced little action thriller, as opposed to the lumbering, directionless behemoths we have been getting served up recently.
And i thought for the longest time that I was the only person on earth that didn’t love skyfall and that liked QOS.
Yes we do. On that note I'll have to rewatch Timothy Dalton's Bond films soon.
I love skyfall. It has momentum, interest and character. It does have plot holes galore but I think it's greater than the sum of its parts.
The exact opposite of Spectre
It's absolutely no good in here....to discuss Sam Mendes from a different perspective. And the slamming continues, continues.....even towards his other films in his filmography. Nothing stays untouched here.
This man knows what he's talking about. Well said.
Idol?
To me QoS is the most re-watchable Bond movie. It's a fast paced, shorter movie, with emotional weight. I think Daniel Craig really gave everything he had in that movie, watched it, wasn't satisfied, then gave up in Skyfall and SPECTRE. If it wasn't for the editing it would probably be in my top 5. Craig really did the best acting of his life in QoS. And you can not not love Mathis
Some of his other films are excellent. Road To Perdition in particular.
Slamming? What has @echo written there that isn't fair and reasoned criticism in his opinion?
Maybe there's a Bond forum for 5 year olds out there you could join where you can post:
'I like Sam Mendes. He makes good James Bond films like Skyfalls and Specter. They are very good films with interesting stories and nice music. I don't like when nasty people say Sam Mendes is not good. He directs very nice films and nasty people should be more nice about Sam Mendes because he is good. I want him to do more exciting films about James Bond.'
Can't find fault with this.
You sound like Judas now.
+1
It was obvious to me that the filmmakers were making the most of the opportunity by showing the first two kills, Bond earning OO-status, and the Vesper story for the first time. And making sense of/giving context to elements like the car chase, Bond getting captured and tortured by the villain, the martini, the sacrificial lamb.
From there, they would continue to build the same longtime Bond film formula. So: the arrival of Q and Moneypenny. The warrior henchman. More global capers by the villain. Blofeld and SPECTRE are a natural since they got the rights back.
I'm standing by for even more humor and other staples. The call-backs/homages to films 1-20 are welcome to me, they've long been used as a celebration of the franchise.
QoS (to me) is hurt by it‘s insane editing (and wasting those awesome locations to some degree ... just a *little* bit slower editing woudl‘ve done wonders (one could follow the acrion properly) yet not losing the intention and impression. But I like the story, the villain ... all of it. Highly rewatchable.
On Skyfall I would not have made Moneypenny an ex-Field Agent (I still thing that‘s nonsense) but the rest is quite cool still - a different type of movie that truly was something new in the series. Less rewatchable but still there‘s so many scenes I just love (enjoying death, underwater fight, the DB5)
QOS and Spectre both really suffer in their final acts. On both occassions extensive rewrites were ongoing during filming. In QOS due to writers strike and budget being eaten up, and Spectre reshoots of London action shots due to weather and Local authority planning. It also caused budget issues. But QOS and Spectre also share another similarity.. arguably their PTS's are among the best parts of the movie. The bar is set high from the start .
The lack of anything happening means there is actually nothing for this topic lol